Glasgow: A History (Vol. I of VI) The Tenementals

Glasgow (2024): Strength in Numbers Records SINRO12

Abstract

The Tenementals are a Glasgow rock group. This record, released last autumn, is the band's debut.  It is what was once called 'a concept album', a journey through Glasgow's radical history in song. And good songs they are too. The record starts with an overview, 'The Owl of Minerva', an aggressive musical flow of ideas.  David Archibald's Glaswegian inflections have the enveloping fervour of a table-sharing stranger in a Glasgow pub; the band--Bob Anderson (drums), Simon Whittle (guitar) and Mark Ferrari (bass)--drive him on remorselessly. The songs that follow are equally energising but in different ways, shadowing a variety of historical moments and bringing in the rest of the band and their instruments (cellos, voice, keyboards, harp, theremin). The next track, 'A Passion Flower's Lament', is a sweet, swirling elegy, sung by Jen Cunnion as a homage to the Glaswegians who went to Spain to fight for the Republicans.